When President Barack Obama offers his Jan. 24 State of the Union address, it will mark exactly 1,000 days since the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate has passed a budget. The Senate has not bothered to pass a budget since April 29, 2009.

“The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the Paul Ryan budget that reduced Obama’s spending levels by six trillion dollars over the next decade.  The Democrat-controlled Senate has not passed a budget in three years," said Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist. "When President Obama tries to blame a ‘do nothing’ congress for his problems….he is half right.  The Democrat Senate has done nothing.”

The President should be alarmed that as the economy flounders, Senate Democrats have refused to offer significant budget solutions. A serious joint address to Congress must confront the Senate Democrats’ abdication of their duties.

President Obama is sure to try to blame Republicans in both chambers for his administration’s failed economic policies. However, on the 1,000th day without a Democrat budget, the President will be forced to explain how anyone else is to blame; it is his party’s Senate leaders who have ignored their basic Congressional responsibility for almost three years.

A short look back on the fiscal recklessness of the last few years shows that if President Obama is upset about budget hostilities in Washington, he has no one to blame but himself. If he is serious about fixing the ailing economy, the President should demand Senate Democrats get back to work:

• 0…Number of Senate votes taken on the massive Democrat spending package crafted last year in place of an actual budget.
• 0…Number of votes the President’s FY 2012 budget received in the Senate.
• 0…Senate Budget Committee budget mark-ups scheduled last year.
• 3…Number of years the deficit has topped $1 Trillion.
• 3…Number of years total government spending has exceeded $3 Trillion.
• 34…number of months unemployment has been above 8 percent, the jobless rate the “stimulus” was supposed to prevent.
• 1.4 million…number of jobs killed by President Obama
• $16.4 Trillion…amount of debt held by the nation after three years of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending binge.
• $80 Billion…Amount by which Obama would have increased spending in 2011 without Republican resolve to cut spending.

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